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Showing results for tags 'tennessee fossils'.
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As of 5/5/16, this large specimen of Late Cretaceous Amber Resin has received a new home in the McClung Museum at the University Of Tennessee (Knoxville). It is from my collection of West Tennessee Amber and is Campanian. This was my 4th-5th largest specimen from my collection.
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Historic Dinosaur Vertebra Newly Recovered
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
I'm extremely excited to announce that two days ago at 3:30 a newly discovered dinosaur vertebra was recovered from a Late Cretaceous Campanian formation in West Tennessee. This is only the 4th. dinosaurian vertebra to ever be found in Tennessee! It's also the first dinosaur vertebra I've ever found in my life. The specimen is from the tail section on the vertebrae column of a Hadrosaur. The neural canal and neural arch are still plainly visible. Specimen is missing the neural spine and also possible Chevron bone. This is a historic achievement for paleontology in Tennessee and here is the first look. As I'm sure by now, everyone on the Forum knows, my cell takes terrible pics, I hope to prep the specimen soon and show better shots of it. These photos were taken the day it was recovered and I have no others presently available. I will post more pics on this thread when the specimen is cleaned.- 27 replies
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Finally, Photos Of The First Dinosaur Bones To Be Found In Tennessee.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Anyone who has searched the internet for pictures of the 5 dinosaur bones that were recovered from the Cretaceous of West Tennessee knows what I'm talking about: there simply isn't ANY photos available to view the all the specimens, with the exception of a PDF file wrote in 1991 by Mr. Bryan from UT Knoxville. That said, the bones aren't to scale in the PDF and some PDF files of the paper don't even retain the pictures. An exhaustive internet search for the material only pulls up a few pictures of a bone or two plus one photo of a few associated fragments. Here I present to you as many photos of the material as I can. In this thread I also present the first photos of every single frag that is associated with the specimens, which isn't on public display. For at least 3 years now, I've tried hard to get photos of these specimens, I finally had to just go to Knoxville and do it myself. Now you all may have access to view photos of this online. A little background history about these bones; they were obtained by the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) from the Tennessee Division of Geology. The tag on the bones simply read "Cretaceous, West Tennessee." That is all! It is thought they were recovered sometime between the 40's-50's by the Division, and that the Geologist whom they came from didn't record the locality information on purpose because he had intent on returning to work the site. Until 2015 these were the only dinosaur bones to ever be found in Tennessee and publicly acknowledged. The find site is still an enduring mystery which I'm working on. My cell takes terrible photos, so I'm sorry about the picture quality, still I wanted to share these photos with you all. -
12/1/15 A Meeting At The Tennessee Division Of Geology With The State Geologist In Nashville.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in Member Collections
There I was pulling up to this building Tuesday morning, about to have a meeting with the State Geologist Ronald Zurawski. Traveling there, all I used to go off of was the address, so you can imagine my surprise when I find out I'm parking in Beside the Tennessee Supreme Court, and this huge building is the place that I have a meeting in...then I find out it's on the 12 floor or course. There I am pulling up with a wooden crate full of material, and 2 extra large specimens. I know I had 100 pd. Anyway... After two breaks, I made it through the front door where the security guard helped me place it on the desk. There I meet Ron for the first time, what a outstanding person. I was impressed with his charisma. A wheelchair being there, it was used for a makeshift transport to the top. Ended up using a dolly to bring the material back down and to the car. There on the 12 th floor in the only empty office I saw, I began submitting a large part of my collection for viewing. The meeting began with Ron and Vince Antonacci, the Geologist for West Tennessee, by about the 3rd bone to come out of the box, they were already leaving the room and calling others to come view this material. Many were available, some weren't. Rounding it up, I spent the next 6 hours there. Talking, answering questions, and asking questions of my own. I stood the entire time. I met more Geologists than I've ever seen under one roof that day. At the end of the day when the material had been viewed very closely, I still had at least 3 specimens that defy identification. No one has ever saw anything like them before and they have certainly become very problematic to me. At some point, one of them returned with 2 publications in hand. One was a classic publication by Ernest Russell that I tried to buy on the spot, I was later given a free copy autographed by the State Geologist. The other was an actual 1926 edition of Bruce Wade's report on the Coon Creek....I could hardly believe my eyes! Met a lot of wonderful people, and was even taken to the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation's office for an introduction,but he wasn't in.( He answers to the Governor.) I did however meet the Deputy Commissioner. (!) I'm even now preparing to write some things with Vince, the Geologist in charge of West Tennessee, which is a truly wonderful opportunity, I feel so blessed. HalleluYAH. I presented bones, teeth, a few minerals, Large Amber specimens, Amber with inclusions, other paleobotanical, and unidentified material. The topics were varied and fascinating, but what really won the day in the Division of Geology was the Cretaceous bone material. Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure the meeting could have actually went any better! Feeling blessed.
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This is a topic I've been meaning to create in the I.D. section for some time now. Hopefully it will be an easier way for interested members to access information regarding my paleobotanical materials. I likewise encourage anyone with Cretaceous Tennessee specimens to post in this topic, to create a better understanding of botanical fossils/palaeoecology/palaeoclimatology, ect. from the cretaceous of Tennessee. I intend to add new materials to this topic for years to come,to ensure a way for researchers to view specimens easily, a benifical concept considering my materials are scattered throughout the TFF in numerous posts in such a way as to be impossible to track for most members and guests of the Forum. Of course a section compiled of all my unknowns will beneficial to myself also. Unless specifically listed with the botanical, all material I post will be Campanian or later. These specimens are recovered material from many diverse sites I collect from. Thank you for viewing my materials and helping with identifications...an untrained person like myself certainly needs all the help I can get!
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First Record Of Shells In The Coffee Sand Formation Of Tennessee.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in Fossil ID
Shells being recovered in other states in the Coffee Sand, Tennessee is the exception. Leaching of the sediments at a later time is thought to have been the general factor. Strangely as it seems, here iron has wholly replaced some unknown shells. My phone camera not being that good, it's difficult to determine in the pics, but very detailed surfaces of the outside of the shells can be saw w/ the naked eye. Also present on the specimen of sandstone appear to be perhaps some type of trackway(?). These shells truely are the first shells discovered in the Coffee Sand of Tennessee that I am aware of. The specimen weighs about 80 pd., so it was a hard recovery, but it's significance excellent. I hope some can I.D. these Campanian Cretaceous shells.
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These are bad photos I know, I'm just looking for a general classification....Dinosaur or Marine Reptile. It sure is looking Dinosaurish to me. It displays a flat surface area on each face. In the photos, the top surface is flat , and is what I take to be the neurospine canal. The vert is longer than wide. Recovered today. Looks like a Hadrosauridae vert to me. If this doesn't look Dinosaurian to you, please share with me your thoughts on what Marine Reptile you think it may be.
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Report From Tennessee Concerning Bruce Wade's Amber & A new Page In History Just This Week.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
This Monday morning about 10:00, The alarms went down in The Tennessee River Museum,external frame, retaining clips, and glass plate removed to the exhibit which housed Mr. Wade's famously historic Specimen of Amber. That day had been prearranged & was preparatory for a Meeting in Nashville the next day. I was actually allowed to remove the specimen out of the display, privately inspect, take measurements of, and photograph it. What an amazing feeling it was to actually roll it around in my hand and closely view it in detail...I will always remember it. For those who may not know, that piece of Amber was the first recorded specimen in North America (!) To contain an Insect inclusion. As Scientific material, it is over 100 years old...in the Paleobotanical world, it's a Grand Slam. And in my mind, it's historical record achievement combined with it's contribution to science and continuous documented history......well, it surely must be such a unique thing that a monetary value must can't be placed on it...it's like the Liberty Bell man.I would argue it to be an iconic piece of American History at any rate. Here I present to you the best photos I could (sorry about image quality) of the specimen. My eyewitness testimony may perhaps be credible enough to resolve a few issues regarding what the inclusion(s) appears like..to the naked eye at least. Some recordings speak of a "whole" inscect, others say only a wing is contained in it, while it is also recorded to have disarticulated remains in the form of a wing and ,two body sections ( best I remember). I did notice 3 different inclusions in the piece. One of the Two key holders to the cases in the Museum told me he couldn't remember the specimen ever coming out of the case!And it had been so long he couldn't remember how many years it had been on display.this first pic is a historic photograph for Tennessee,if nothing more, but may be elevated to a higher status in the future. It is Gwynneth Marie Welch, my daughter, holding Bruce Wade's specimen in her right hand, and in her left hand lays a specimen of from our recoveries which contains two "whole" insects from the Cretaceous, a first for Tennessee. My expertise in insects being minimal, I can only relate one looks like a nat and the other a mosquito. Other inclusions occurring in the specimen, bubbles, ect. Perhaps they may turn out new to science...a dream come true. At any rate, enjoy these photos of Wade's specimen, they aren't the best perhaps, but there really isn't that many pictures floating around on the internet to view the specimen either. I have another post to make about similar connected events that will also be made today
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These are pics sent to me by my cousin who was running a dozer and uncovered this fossil. There are Silurian and Devonian limestones in his area. I have also read that first Sea Cucumbers made their appearance in the Devonian. So I told him my best "guess" was "the fossilized endoskeleton remains of a probable Devonian time period Sea Cucumber"... I'm very unsure because those periods aren't my main study. Did I say wrong?
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Starting a thread on them good'ol Exogryas, as time goes i'll steadily be adding to it for all the Exogrya lovers out there. I have lots of this material, just haven't been able to get to most of it yet for preping. I got the big ones, the little ones, the tiny ones, ones that are so riddled with holes they look like swiss cheese, the ugly, the stunning, and the average...lets start with the finest Exogrya i've ever seen, it was previously posted in a thread entitled "A Museum Grade Exogrya." I've never yet saw one on display that looked better than this.....most aren't even on its level.
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Unknown Bone From Very Near Base Of Demopolis Formation (Campanian)
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in Fossil ID
This is a bone i recovered right at the Sardis/Demopolis contact about 4 years ago. It seems to have been right at the upper Sardis, and immediately below contact. I've always thought it unusual for it to be of a whitish color. 5 of the 6 confirmed Dinosaurian bones that have been found in Tennessee were supposed to have been found in the same area of the contact...and true enough, lots of those D-bones were of a whitish color...also several of the frags found with them. Another thing remarkable about this bone is it's density! For it's size, it's so heavy that i've actually questioned if it had a hollow place in it for marrow.....strange....makes me think it possibly may be a very thick bone because it had to support great weight or something=toe bone? Anyways, ihad it looked at once and was told there was to much missing for a sound i.d. to be made....to me however, it appears there may well be enough still there for a reasonable i.d. I was thinking the basic overall shape to be pretty much the way it looked originally....ofcourse there is missing bone, but to me, the "front" pointed part is original, and still discernable....you can still see a bit of outside surface in that spot (in my opinion). Also also the sides, it appears here and there, there is original surface bone still detectable. The back has been "munched" pretty good, & appears to even have predation marks, but you can still clearly make out a socket area, what i will be calling the "bottom" area, may be missing some that if there, would have gave it a slightly different appearance....because i can't make out a surface bone texture there in any spot. I truly hope somebody can i.d. this, cause i personally think it may be a somewhat rare find....what do you think?
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Last year i collected the following Late Cretaceous Campanian specimens from a lignite layer in Henderson co., TN that has proven itself to be special to me. This is my first and only whole cone....what a sweet lil'baby! Was thinkng A sequoia species, but lets see what the experts say, I treated it w/ a preservative because i had to, the lignite was partially replaced w/ marcasite which would have soon deteoriated if left untreated. The seed & seed pod i'm not sure go together, but the seed sure looks like it may fit in something like that....the seed also stunningly looks like a redwood seed.... what is your take on these excellently preserved items?
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Coon Creek Formation Preliminary Survey 4/25/14
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
On this day, a survey of the said formation was made by myself and the property owners. The potential of what is there is as vast as acreage. Many glorious and illustrious items are there waiting for the right time to be shown to the world! The property is so vast that no where near a 1/4 was inspected, and during which the actual outcrops were passed up for the most part,while trying to get an idea of "where to start." This truely is a geologist's paradise! briefly while @ one exposure, these specimens were recovered, i presume the small one to be a "baby" Baculites....sweet little dude. It's find zone was in the upper part of CC near the contact. In that area is siderite,and it appears this Baculites has been completely replaced by Siderite. I've found one of these before, it was donated to UT Martin on the same day....this looks like it's twin. The other item that i will post on this thread, i'm not exactly sure what is....it certainly has the characteristic bubble shapes on it's surface like a ghost crab burrow....but i've just never saw a burrow of that type animal that large. Perhaps it could be a fine specimen of coprolite???? This specimen appears to be phosphatized, so i don't know....
